On Saturday afternoon (Sept. 26), more than 150 motorcyclists and supporters held a rally on the south steps of the State Capitol in Austin, asking state lawmakers to step in on the ongoing Waco biker shooting case.
The bikers are unhappy with the way the Waco Police Department and other authorities are handling the case. Texas motorcyclists also wanted to show support to victims and their families of what many are calling an ambush.
More than four months have gone by since the May 17 shootout at Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, which left nine bikers dead and 20 injured, and resulted in the arrest of 177 citizens who were at the scene. No formal indictments have been made, and it remains unclear whose bullets struck the dead and injured.
Attorneys for some of the arrested bikers have criticized Waco authorities for keeping their clients jailed for weeks and setting their bail at $1 million, which many negotiated down. The lawyers claim that some bikers were arrested without cause, and were incarcerated simply because they were present and part of motorcycle clubs.
Dallas Lawyer Clint Broden, who is representing one of the arrested bikers in criminal and civil lawsuits, told the crowd: “That’s how tyrannies usually start, by throwing people in jail because of their association.”
Defense attorney Paul C. Looney, from Houston, who is also representing defendants in the criminal case, was outspoken about how Waco and McLennan County authorities handled the shootout and its aftermath.
“They can get away with it right now, but they can’t get away with it when we get in front of real judges … in front of people who are not from Waco,” Looney said, smoking a cigar as he spoke to the crowd. “I don’t care if we go against people. I don’t care if we go against money. We have the law.”
Also speaking at the event were Judy Bergman, wife of one of the arrested bikers, and Trish Robinson, who shared their stories of their husbands’ arrests during the incident. Mary Rodriguez, whose husband, Jesse D. “Mohawk” Rodriguez was killed during the shoot out at Twin Peaks, was in attendance with family members. One of their signs proclaimed, “We demand the truth.”
Attorney Broden thanked the group for coming, and for standing up for the rights or fellow citizens: “And I say ‘citizens,’ I don’t say bikers, I don’t say Bandidos, I don’t say Cossacks, I don’t say Scimitars, I don’t say Desgraciados, because everybody has to remember what we’re united for,” he said. “We’re united for the rights of citizens, and today we have to stand united and all wear the same patch.”
It was also recently reported that the now-infamous Twin Peaks building at Central Texas Marketplace, in Waco—the scene of the bloody shootout—has been put on the market. The sale price for the 7,869-square-foot building, which has an 1,800-square-foot patio, is $4.2 million. The building can be leased for $350,000 a year plus the cost of insurance and taxes. Greg Blandford with Position Property Group in Dallas is the listing agent. The restaurant has remained closed since the shooting in May, when Addison-based Twin Peaks revoked the Waco site’s franchise.
